Awakenings

My work is about discovery and perhaps amusement. The inspiration was from a photo of a collection of intriguing pieces. It took a good bit of trying different objects to see what this piece wanted to be.

These pieces (mostly painted years ago) were selected to highlight the range of a particular color, “green”, through the natural progression seen going from early spring to summer. Three are scenes in France. The final painting in the series depicts a street corner along the Seine. Needless to say, I’m looking forward to a seasonal awakening of foliage which will hopefully correspond to an onset of our ability to travel safely.

During the first year of COVID, I created over 200 nonobjective 4 x 6 collages. I preferred the abstract world of color, texture and shape over our global reality. The first heart, surprisingly patriotic, appeared on Inauguration Day 2021. Working as I listened to Amanda Gorman and Lady Gaga, I witnessed for the first time that a woman, Kamala Harris, would be Vice President, relieved that Biden was officially our president. I finally felt some hope. This relief carried me through February as I continued to play with the heart shape. In 'Love’, I present twelve of my favorite heart collages.

The title of this work, Pax Anthropocene, is a play on the Pax Augusta, an unprecedented period of peace in the Roman Empire during the reign of Caesar Augustus. Augustus declared his intentions for peace by erecting an altar to peace (the Ara Pacis Augustae) showing his triumphal procession and carved with friezes dedicated to the peace and prosperity of the empire.

These works capture some of the essence of the imagery of the Ara Pacis in the light and time of the cyanotype process. These fanciful combinations of flora and fauna include acanthus, laurel, Roman pine, pomegranates, and other plants and animals commonly seen in ancient Roman stonework. Exposed under the Mediterranean sun and developed in the mineral-rich water of Rome, they connect the pre-fossil fuel era with today's climate stressed ecosystems. How will we make peace with nature in this human-centric era?

I have long been attracted to the complex patterns formed by plants in the wild. Meadows, hedgerows, and the edges of waterways are abundant with diversity of shape and color. They entrance me visually, and compel me by the opportunities for pictorial composition that they provide. Shapes and the areas between them form intriguing spaces, differently oriented from the usual constraints of gravity on large objects. They are jumbled together in ways that appear largely accidental, yet are precisely directed by the growth patterns of the interspersed and entangled species.

My aim is to visually convey the array of emotions and physical changes experienced while being at the intersection of childhood and adulthood. I remember these changes in my own adolescence so clearly, and as a mother of two children, I watched my children go through similar experiences in their own harrowing way.

Imagination brings playfulness to ordinary objects which is expressed in the sensation of movement and space.

This body of work is my attempt to share reflections on certain inspiring locations. Upon experiencing these locations I realize a kind of awakening that makes me suddenly aware of new light, color, texture, and atmosphere. One such location is my neighbor’s pond, about 200 yards from my house. It is hidden by a row of locust trees but once you wonder through that privacy, a new world develops, one that changes on a daily and seasonal basis. The walk to the pond travels through my own perennial garden that offers the same experience of awakening with a continual succession of blooms throughout the seasons. I hope this body of work awakens you to the wonders of this place.

The theme “Awakenings” brought to mind the five years that I spent as a volunteer in Laos in the 60’s. While there, I learned how to make batiks and to carve on wood door panels. I also traveled a lot and brought back items from those travels in Asia. This exhibit contains still life photographs of selected items. I enjoyed the many memories that flooded back after more than 50 years.

My response to the theme of our show: “Awakenings” could have no other. Spring, flowers and a garden beginning its annual journey has been a life long passion and major theme of my own journey with photography. “For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. The Flowers appear on the earth… Lines from Song of Solomon 2:10-13 (KJV)